Consolidating the EU’s Crisis Management Structures : Civil-Military Coordination and the Future of the EU OHQ

Detaljna analiza 13-04-2010

The development from ESDP to CSDP in the Lisbon Treaty is desirable to increase coherence in the EU’s external action, including its crisis management efforts. This study argues that the EU has been moving in the direction towards more complex and hybrid operations for which comprehensive planning needs to be used. The need for more intensive intra-EU coordination as well as external cooperation of the EU with other actors involved in crisis management is recognised. The creation of CMPD is a welcome step towards further integration of civilian and military approaches to crisis management, however there have also been important lines of criticism, particularly related to the complexity of the chain of command and to the possibility that either the military or the civilian side will dominate the strategic planning and conduct in the field of crisis management. As far as the EU OHQ is concerned, the analysis in this study paper suggests that none of the existing options is particularly well-suited for current and future EU operations in the field of crisis management. It is for this reason that a case for the establishment of a permanent strategic planning and conduct structure is made.